John Hume gets papal knighthood

The Nobel Laureate and former SDLP leader (75), whose dialogue with Sinn Féin paved the way for the end of violence and the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, was made a Knight of St Gregory for his peace work.

An SDLP spokesman confirmed the honour.

Mr Hume's SDLP represented the majority of nationalists in the North for many years until it was overtaken in the polls by Sinn Féin relatively recently.

He was one of the architects of the peace process as the second leader of the SDLP from 1979 to 2001. The former demonstrator for Catholic civil rights served as a member of the European Parliament and an MP for Foyle as well as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

He was named Ireland’s Greatest in a public poll by RTÉ to find the greatest person in the country’s history.

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